Use of an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”) for airborne surveillance, remote sensing, communications, atmospheric sampling and other related purposes is an attractive approach that, at its best, incorporates flexibility, flight safety, and meaningful data acquisition. However, for flight safety, the determination and display of the flight paths of two or more aerial vehicles (“AVs”) in the same 3D airspace is not straightforward. Particularly challenging is estimating and displaying the time and distance of closest approach between two conflicting AVs, where one of the AVs is a ground-controlled UAV.
The critical steps for actual UAV collision avoidance is subdivided into two categories: (i) computations and recommendations provided by the system; and (ii) tasks performed by the UAV pilot. The UAV pilot is here defined as being equivalent to the UAV operator or controller responsible for changing the flight path and flight speed of the UAV for the purpose of collision avoidance.
What is needed is a sense-and-avoid display system that provides the UAV pilot with a graphic display of air traffic activity. The system needs to highlight potential airborne conflict involving the UAV, and provide recommendations for maintaining a safe separation distance between the UAV and other AVs in real time or near-real time.